Crafting A Future

March 16, 2018

This ten plagues craft is from the archives, but still just too cute not to feature again, so enjoy! And of course, adults can join in on the fun too!

A good four plus years ago I had a group of fearless crafters, namely boys ages 7-10 who enthusiastically spent a few hours making a fun ten plagues passover craft! This is actually a mini version of the Ten Plagues Placards that I made a few years back, and certainly a little easier for kids to make themselves. Set the kids up with just a few simple supplies, and this project could literally occupy them for hours! I'm sure that sounds great right about now?

July 15, 2014

Today is the 17th of Tammuz, a solemn fast day on the Jewish calender, and certainly a perfect time to work on my "Rebuilding the Beit HaMikdash" recycling craft with kids of all ages! Of course one could certainly use this idea to also learn about the Kotel (The Wailing Wall) which stands today and was one of the outer walls of the courtyard of the Beit HaMikdash.

Starting today, we enter a period of mourning for the next three weeks— mourning for the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem that was taken from us in 70 CE, (namely 1,943 years ago!) on the 9th of Av, the day which marks the end of this three week period of mourning. Of course our mourning has many facets, one of which is thinking about how each one of us can do his part to rebuild the temple.

Getting a group of kids to each paint part of a stone wall on a recycled cardboard box of some kind is a great way to communicate the message of unity and the importance of each of us using our unique gifts to do good in the world. In case you're wondering who painted that pink section, well of course that would be me, as one of my contributions to the world is to encourage creativity!

You'll Need:

recycled cardboard food boxes, these were from energy bars

paint

hot glue, double stick tape or high-tack glue

How To:

Carefully open seams of boxes, and lay flat. Show kids how stones are generally used to build walls, here we just need to look out the window, you may want to show the kids some photos. Talk about using paint to create a suggestion of stone texture by using several colors, and set the kids free to create their unique stone wall!

Once dry, re-glue the box using hot glue, or high-tack glue, regular glue in generally not strong enough to hold the seams unless the boxes are quite small.

June 20, 2014

Sometimes the simplest of art projects can have some of the greatest results — like these wonderful flowers that my group of boys painted at Crafting A Future as a part of a project for the holiday of Shavuot. Truthfully, I had so many kid crafted flowers to share, that I decide to hang on to this one for a later date, which happens to be today!

One might expect that when given the task of painting flowers, some boys might balk a bit, but not a negative comment came out of the mouths of these sweet artists.....as usual they simply got to work, and I just love the results.

It was so interesting to see that some of the boys whose drawing skills aren't so great, actually excelled at the painting.

So do get out the paints and paint on anything. Just the idea of plates full of bright color and large brushes are enough to get most kids excited (hopefully) and if they're not excited, well, turn up the heat and get them excited, or at least try to?

After these wonderful flowers were dry, I cut them out and we then used them for a collage project, which turned out to be one of the more fabulous things to come out of our two or so hours of crafting every Sunday evening. I will most certainly get out those paints on a regular basis.....even my non-crafting ten year old was inspired to paint a few tulips when he saw all the great things his friends were painting!

June 18, 2014

A month or so ago, at Crafting A Future, I introduced my group of 1st and 2nd grade girls to the idea of making pom poms using a fork! First of all they were thrilled to know that they could actually make their own pom poms, and everyone dove into the activity with great interest.

One can use regular dinner size forks, which results in the cutest little pom poms ever, see below, or if you use a serving fork, you can actually make some pom poms around the size one would use to top a winter hat.

We used these pom poms as a part of a wall hanging craft and generally pom poms made by small children will fall apart and are best used in a way where they would not be handled.

Want to make some yourself? Here's how to make a fork pom pom:

Simply place a length of yarn between the middle prongs of the fork, namely the lavender piece seen above.

Start wrapping the fork with yarn. Note: With the small pom poms, don't wrap too much or it becomes too difficutl to cut.

Use that original length of yarn to tie a secure knot around the middle of the yarn, and then slide the whole thing off the fork.

June 03, 2014

This week at Crafting A Future, while some of the girls used their egg carton flowers to decorate mirrors, others ditched the egg carton flowers alltogether and made these sweet rolled felt flowers to decorate their mirrors. This would be a perfect little project for a Bat Mitzvah, or a birthday party, and hey even boys could have fun making something for their mother or sister?

June 02, 2014

How about getting the kids busy making a simply sweet egg carton flower bouquet, just in time for Shavuot, or some other festive occasion? Egg carton flowers are so fun to make, and even if a child only has the patience to make a few, (which was the case here) with some skewers and craft foam, or felt, one can turn those flowers into something fabulous! (Of course older or more adventurous kids can make much larger and more intricate egg carton flowers as I shared with you last week, here)

You'll Need:

egg cartons

paint

skewers

green craft foam

green felt

a plastic container with a lid, this one held peanut butter

some pretty fabric and a ribbon

How To:

Egg carton flowers are made by cutting about the compartments of egg cartons and then using those to make flower shapes of all kinds. The flowers here were three layers, with the inner two layers made of the square bottom portion of the egg carton compartment.

After flowers are painted and assembled, or assembled and painted, and set aside to dry, stick a skewer up the center of the flower and add a dab of glue to strengthen.

Cover the stem of the flowers by wrapping a thin strip of green felt around them.

Cut lots and lots of leaves from green craft foam, and using a hot glue gun manned by an adult, affix the leaves in a circular pattern to the base of the egg carton flower. You made need in some cases to affix leaf to both the flower and the skewer.

Put a piece of styrofoam into your chosen container, and stick skewers into foam and affix with more hot glue or tape.

Cover outside of container with a strip of fabric, affixed most easily with hot glue, and tie a pretty ribbon around the container.

Cover the opening of the container with lots of green craft foam leaves, and voila!

May 27, 2014

This week at craftng a future, I introduced my lively group of 7 to 11 year old girls to the wonders of making gorgeous flowers using egg cartons. I spent most of the time cutting up flats of egg cartons to give the girls a head start, so I didn't get to make any myself, but I sure would love to!

Since egg cartons were a plenty (on behalf of a neighbor who had been saving them!) we also used them as drying racks, and I must say, the egg carton flowers in progress also look like gorgeous works of art, don't they?

This one in particular just makes me so very happy, love those colors!

Most of the girls worked methodically creating many singular flowers to join together after they've dried, while one student who always goes against the grain made this very artful flower consisting of at least eight layers. This craft was such a success, I invited the girls back for another crafting session the next day so that they could make more flowers....and of course they suggested that we craft together two days a week all the time! (I took pictures of the creative mess, which I'll share with you shortly.)

Honestly, I'm not exactly sure how we're going to use these flowers, and I have exactly five days to figure it out before the girls will be back for more crafting adventures! In the meantime, do give egg carton flowers a try, there are so many possibilities!

May 26, 2014

This week at Crafting A Future, my !st and 2nd grade girls made these gorgeous recycled soda bottle flowers that sure do look like blown glass, don't they? We'll be using these flowers for a shavuot wall hanging that the girls have been working on, but I think they'd look great as is strung together with fishline or glued to a backing of some kind.

Wondering how we got such vivid colors for our recycled soda bottle flowers? Why tissue paper of course!And the other secret is to work on the inside of the flower, such that when you turn the work over the shiny plastic enhances the colors.

They really are so much fun, and so simple to make that you can whip up a bunch. Keep reading for the how-to.......

March 06, 2014

Last week in my CRAFTING A FUTURE class for first and second grade girls, I introduced them to the idea of water color resist painting, using white wax candles, about the size of a thick crayons together with crayons, and of course water colors. The results are festive and sweet, just like this group of little girls who are so thirsty to learn more that they showed up giggling fifteen minutes early.

I love the clear colors of water color paints, namely those sold on a palette, and we'll be using these little works of art to make packaging and gift tags for Purim.

In addition to the idea of "resist" the girls also learned a little bit about how to use water colors, namely with lots of water, as those that painted too densely with the paint weren't able to see the areas where they had drawn with the candle. Not to worry, dab the area with paper towel or tissue to remove some of the paint, and the resist areas can be seen.

This is a great project to try anytime, or even for adults to use as a way to make some fun wrapping paper. Hmmm, maybe I'll make some myself to use for Purim cards!

Your support in helping me continue bringing art classes to children from poverty stricken families in Northern Israel is greatly appreciated. Please be my partner is this great act of kindness that brings hope through creativity.

February 24, 2014

Yesterday's craft project at Crafting A Future, (which I did with about 20 kids total) to make a mini Purim costumes clothesline was a great success! I'm so happy to share with you some of the results, and am enjoying looking at the one that my eight year old made, now hanging in our kitchen.

I introduced this project by teaching the kids to make sketches on a piece of scrap paper before drawing on the more precious colored paper, and welcomed originality! I also told them to make at least five items for the best results. I did not do an example, as if I did I knew many would just copy it, which is against the rules in our art classes! The example above was made by an 11 year old, who did a nice job of pasting together two halves of that clown suit!

A fun combination of colors and Purim costume pieces, done by an ten year old.

This one was done by an 11 year old who has confidence and the ability to understand the project and do it, which may seem simple enough, but was so very difficult for at least half of the group, who sadly have been taught in school to copy an example. This has made them insecure and lacking in very basic abilities that should come naturally. Sigh. I'm hoping my classes will help them!

This was done by a 9 year old, who showed originality (yippee!) by drawing patterns on some of her pieces. That white jacket though was actually a copy of the one thing I drew to help another girl who after an hour had nothing.

A super sweet version, love the little polka dots and the combination of colors.

And now, let's take a look at how the boys faired with this craft. My daughter thought it might be a little too "girly" for them, so I gave them a few options, but they chose to do this one, with great results. As it turns out, five out of six boys in the class were so much more able to get down to business with the project than the girls. The boys sat down and got to work, without worrying so much about the results or whether what they were doing was perfect enough, very interesting indeed!

This one is a great combination of color, size and shape......

This one was done by my eight year old son in a matter of minutes, and with very little effort.....

This colored version was done by a ten year old who sat patiently long after everyone had gone home and carefully drew and cut out his pieces, great job!

You'll Need:

colored card stock

black markers in various widths

scissors

mini wooden clothespins (from your local craft/dollar store)

pom pom yarn, or any yarn or string for hanging

How To: Get kids to make sketches of ideas on scrap paper before drawing on colored card stock. Draw with pencil first and then go over pencil lines with black marker, or for those who are more confident, dive right in with the black marker. Cut out items, and hang them on your yarn clothesline. Ta Da, an adorable Purim decoration for your wall has been made!